Washing away a health risk

February 27, 2009

In the past couple of decades, hospital scrubs have gotten a touch of style, coming in an array of colors and prints. But in hospitals across the country, these and other uniforms are making a statement that has nothing to do with fashion and everything to do with the spread of deadly bacteria. And as with the negative outcomes that result from hospital hand-washing procedures not being followed, this risk could easily be minimized. The headline for a recent op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal summed up the problem by calling hospital scrubs "a germy, deadly mess." The mess is created when medical personnel wear the same unlaundered uniforms to work day after day, dining in them, shopping in them, commuting in them. These dirty scrubs -- which might not appear to be dirty -- increase the risk of infection for patients. And if that's not bad enough, unclean uniforms bring hospital superbugs into public places such as restaurants. Thanks in part to a rapid increase in one such infection called "C. diff," a germ that isn't killed by laundry detergents or most cleaners, some hospitals prohibit wearing scrubs outside the building. Taking such preventive measures clearly pays off. According to The Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (RID), a health center in St. Louis reduced infections after Cesarean births by more than 50 percent by providing all caregivers with hospital-laundered scrubs and requiring them to wear two pairs of gloves. And a hospital in Bloomington, Ind., that provides laundered scrubs for staff and prevents them from wearing them outside the building has a near-zero rate of hospital-acquired infections. Those sorts of examples should be more than enough to motivate hospital administrators to take action to minimize the risk of infection. RID calls on all hospitals in the United States to provide clean uniforms or scrubs for personnel and to bar medical workers from wearing uniforms out of hospital buildings. It should be noted that until about 20 years ago nearly all hospitals laundered staff uniforms. Returning to this practice seems a relatively small thing to do in order to protect patients and the public at large.